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Longmont woman's bond set at $100,000 in New Year's Eve hit-and-run case

Family, pastor maintain she is innocent

By Pierrette J. ShieldsLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
01/04/2013 04:13:23 PM MST

Updated:
01/04/2013 07:17:00 PM MST

Kendra Rae Balentine, 18, of Longmont, who was arrested on suspicion of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a third-degree felony, waves to her family during her court appearance at the Boulder County Jail on Friday January 4, 2013. Photo by Paul Aiken / The Longmont Times Call
(Paul Aiken)

BOULDER -- A Boulder County judge set a $100,000 bond for an 18-year-old Longmont woman accused of a New Year's Eve hit-and-run accident that left a 16-year-old Denver boy dead.

Kendra Rae Balentine is scheduled to return to court Tuesday for filing of charges. She was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of leaving the scene of an accident involving a death, a third-degree felony.

Longmont police believe Balentine left a New Year's Eve church service that she was attending with her family shortly after receiving a call or text message from a family member who had been threatened with racially motivated language.

Her mother, Stephanie Balentine, and pastor Cory Seulean told the Times-Call that Kendra was in church the entire evening and did not leave. They were both upset at how high the bond was set Friday.

Grimmer
(.)

"I just don't know why it was $100,000," Seulean said while waiting to visit Kendra Balentine at the Boulder County Jail after the Friday hearing. "She has no prior record."

Stephanie Balentine was visibly upset at the bond and said she did not want to talk about it because she was afraid her words would not come out right.

"My daughter was in church," she said through tears.

Cmdr. Jeff Satur said police had responded to an initial call regarding a group of four white boys and men, ages 16 to 31, harassing a black man near the 2200 block of Main Street. The man told officers he did not want any action taken, and the group of white boys and men agreed to go to a bus stop and leave the area on the bus. Police left, but were called again at 10:05 p.m. on a report of a fight between the group of white boys and men and another group of six black men in their 20s.

When officers arrived, they called dispatch to report that a boy was down in the southbound lanes of Main Street with "massive head trauma" after apparently being hit by a vehicle, which had fled the scene.

Satur said it takes only three minutes to drive from the church to the scene of the accident.

Investigators initially sought a Chevrolet van, which was rear-ended by another vehicle at the scene. Satur said police tracked down that van, whose occupants had been involved in the fight, but the vehicle apparently did not strike the boy, identified as Jason Grimmer.

Kendra Rae Balentine

Additional leads led police to seek a gray sports car on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, investigators caught up with Balentine on the 1500 block of Main Street, arrested her and impounded her silver Chevrolet Cavalier.

Satur said Grimmer's autopsy showed he had been struck only once. He said the car apparently drove over the boy and added that evidence taken from Kendra Balentine's car places it at the scene. DNA evidence will be sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for forensic analysis.

Prosecutor Karen Peters told Boulder County Judge John Stavely on Friday afternoon that tire tracks from the scene also matched the impounded car.

Seulean (.)

Satur said investigators are looking into the family and pastor's claims. He said police have Kendra Balentine's cellphone and phones from others involved in the fight and that those may reveal more to investigators.

Kendra Balentine is scheduled to return to court Tuesday for formal filing of charges. Seulean said he hopes the bond will be reduced then because he isn't sure whether the family can make the $100,000 bond.

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